While most of the technology world was busy unwrapping gifts or arguing over holiday dinner, Xiaomi decided Christmas Day was the perfect time to announce its most aggressive smartphone yet. Meet the Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

If you’re wondering what happened to the Xiaomi 16 Ultra, you didn’t miss it. It doesn’t exist. In a move that feels very “tech CEO logic,” Xiaomi chief operating officer Lei Jun confirmed the company skipped the number 16 entirely just so the phone’s name would align with — and directly challenge — Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup.

What’s remarkable is that Xiaomi has somehow crammed a massive 1-inch sensor, a 200-megapixel variable zoom lens, and a huge 6,800mAh battery into a chassis that is actually thinner than its predecessor.

The camera is the computer

Put bluntly, you buy the brand’s Ultra for the massive circle on the back. This year, that circle houses a new moveable ring system for controlling focal length, which sounds like a fidget spinner for photographers.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra’s main shooter uses a 1-inch Light Hunter 1050L sensor co-developed with German optics manufacturer Leica. Xiaomi claims this is the “strongest main camera” of 2026, pointing to a new LOFIC technology that reportedly hits a dynamic range of 110dB. In plain English? It should stop blowing out the highlights in your neon-lit city shots while still keeping the shadows clean.

SEE ALSO: Xiaomi 17 Series is here, featuring dual-screen Pro models and a compact powerhouse

The more interesting update, however, is the telephoto situation. Xiaomi ditched the quad-camera setup of the past for a triple-lens array, but the zoom lens is doing double duty. It’s a 200-megapixel periscope unit with a 1/1.4-inch sensor that offers continuous optical zoom between 75mm and 100mm. Because it’s using that massive megapixel count, Xiaomi says you get full-resolution cropping without digital fuzz. It’s the industry’s first Leica APO apochromatic certification on a phone, which should kill that ugly purple fringing you get in high-contrast zoom shots.

Power and polishing

The rest of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra spec sheet reads like a wish list from a Reddit thread. It’s running the top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, paired with a 2D full-flat 6.9-inch display. The era of curved screens with problematic edge touches seems to be winding down.

Among the standout specs is a 6,800mAh battery — larger than rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max — all within a chassis just 8.29mm thick. The company also replaced the volume rocker with separate circular buttons, adding a touch of mechanical tactility to the glass slab.

On the software side, Xiaomi is making a friendly play toward Apple users. The updated HyperOS will apparently allow you to mirror your Xiaomi screen to an iPhone and vice-versa. It’s a peace offering in a walled garden war, even if the Starry Green colorway clearly wants to steal some iMessage envy.

The regular variant’s Starry Green colorway

Pricing and availability

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra lands in multiple configurations, and Lei Jun wasn’t kidding about those rising component costs. If you want the exclusive Leica Edition with the signature branding and camera-inspired design, be prepared to pay a premium.

• Standard Edition
  • 12GB/512GB: 6,999 Chinese yuan (roughly $999 or 58,694 Philippine pesos)
  • 16GB/512GB: 7,499 yuan ($1,070 or 62,878 pesos)
  • 16GB/1TB: 8,499 yuan ($1,213 / 71,249 pesos)
• Leica Edition
  • 16GB/512GB: 7,999 yuan ($1,141 or 67,083 pesos)
  • 16GB/1TB: 8,999 yuan ($1,284 or 75,470 pesos)

It’s on sale in China starting tomorrow, December 27.

There is no word yet on a global release, but we expect it to hit international markets in the first quarter of 2026.

Xiaomi 17 Ultra 5G specs

• 6.9-inch LTPO OLED display, 1.5K resolution, 1-120Hz refresh rate, Xiaomi Shield Glass 3
• 3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 5G processor
• Adreno 840 GPU
• 12GB/16GB LPDDR5X RAM
• 512GB/1TB UFS 4.1 storage
• Triple 50-megapixel, 1-inch main,
• 200-megapixel periscope telephoto with continuous optical zoom, 50-megapixel ultrawide rear cameras
• 50-megapixel front camera
• Under-display ultrasonic fingerprint reader
• 6,800mAh battery with 90-watt fast wired charging, 50-watt wireless charging
• HyperOS 3.0 based on Android 16
• Colors: White, black, purple, green

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